Donald L. Canney 's study is the first book-length history of the U.S. Navy 's Africa Squadron. Established in 1842 to enforce the ban on importing slaves to the United States, in twenty years time the squadron proved ineffective. To officers and enlisted men alike, duty in the squadron was unpopular. The equatorial climate, departmental neglect, and judicial indifference, which allowed slavers back at sea, all contributed to the sailors frustration. Later, the most dama... View more info

Rough Crossings turns on a single huge question: if you were black in America at the start of the Revolutionary War, whom would you want to win? In response to a declaration by the last governor of Virginia that any rebel-owned slave who escaped and served the King would be emancipated, tens of thousands of slaves -- Americans who clung to the sentimental notion of British freedom -- escaped from farms, plantations and cities to try to reach the British camp. This mas... View more info

On June 28, 1839, the Spanish slave schooner "Amistad "set sail from Havana on a routine delivery of human cargo. On a moonless night, after four days at sea, the captive Africans rose up, killed the captain, and seized control of the ship. They attempted to sail to a safe port, but were captured by the U.S. Navy and thrown into jail in Connecticut. Their legal battle for freedom eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, where their cause was argued by former preside... View more info

This survey synthesizes the economic, social, cultural and political history of the Atlantic slave trade. It details the current scholarly knowledge of forced African migration and compares this knowledge to popular beliefs. The book examines the 400 years of the Atlantic slave trade, covering the West and East African experiences and the American colonies and republics that obtained slaves from Africa, outlining common features and local variations. It discusses the sla... View more info